


Can I stay here tonight?

by lynxofspace



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: 1995, Especially his dad, M/M, Reggie's parents are kind of abusive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27479107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynxofspace/pseuds/lynxofspace
Summary: Reggie runs away from home after a fight with his parents and ends up in Bobby's garage with Luke.
Relationships: Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 222





	Can I stay here tonight?

Luke was just about to fall asleep when he heard the knock on the door. It took him a second to remember where he was and make sense of what the sound was. The knock rang again. He got up from the couch and put his pants on, still a little groggy. What he saw when he opened the garage door was the last thing he expected: Reggie, soaking wet and crying.

“Reggie?” Luke asked. “What happened? Are you okay?” he put his hand on Reggie’s shoulder and led him inside. 

“I had a really bad fight with my parents and I didn’t know where else to go,” he said. “Can I stay here tonight?”

Luke knew that feeling all too well. He had ran away from home too, after a particularly bad fight with his mom. He had lived in Bobby’s garage for a couple of weeks now, and he was starting to get homesick, but he couldn’t bring himself to go back there. Luke didn’t want the same for Reggie, but it was 2am and it was pouring outside, so he couldn’t exactly send him home. “Of course!”

“Awesome, thanks,” he said with a smile.

Luke picked up a bag of clothes off the floor and threw it at Reggie. “Change, before you catch a cold,” he commanded. 

Reggie immediately pulled his shirt off and Luke was taken aback. He had seen Reggie shirtless before, but something about the dim lighting and the intimate atmosphere made his heart skip a beat. He turned around when Reggie started on his pants.

“You can turn around now,” Reggie said. 

Luke did as instructed, and once again felt his heart skip a beat, this time at the sight of Reggie in his sleeveless band shirt and jeans. _His_. Luke immediately abandoned the thought and went over to take a seat on the leather couch. He patted the seat next to him, as if gesturing to a dog, and Reggie sat down. “So do you want to talk about what happened at home?”

Reggie avoided eye contact. “They just keep picking fights with me, even when I don’t do anything wrong. Tonight I fought back and it kind of blew up.” 

“I’m sorry, Reg,” Luke put his hand on Reggie’s shoulder. 

“I know they’re really just mad at eachother, I just don’t get why they have to take it out on me.”

“It really sucks,” Luke said. “But it’s their loss for not realizing how amazing their son is.”

“Thanks, Luke.” 

“I mean that, you know, you’re amazing.”

Reggie smiled. 

Luke didn’t know whether to blame his lowered inhibitions on the mood or the fact that it was almost 3 am and he was insanely tired, but in that moment he acted before he could think and kissed Reggie softly.

Reggie didn’t look repulsed by the kiss, just confused. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” Luke said when he finally realized what he had done. “That was way out of line.”

“It’s okay, I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“Any chance we can pretend it didn’t happen?” Luke asked.

“Sure,” Reggie said and put his head on Luke’s shoulder. They must have fallen asleep because that was the last thing Luke remembered from that night.  
________________________________________

Once again it was knocks on the door that brought Luke out of his sleep, though the knocks were immediately forgotten when he realized what the weight on his chest was. Pieces of the night before came back to him, and with them a feeling of regret. He had kissed Reggie. He didn’t remember falling asleep like that though, laying down with Reggie on top of him, sleeping peacefully. 

“Luke! Open up!” he heard from outside the door, snapping him out of his thoughts. Bobby never woke him on weekends. His first thought was that Reggie’s parents had called Bobby’s and that they were mad. 

“Luke? You in there?” This time it was Alex’ voice.

Luke carefully slid out from under Reggie, trying very hard not to wake him. When he opened the door both Bobby and Alex gave him a look.

“Dude, were you asleep?” Alex asked. “We’ve been knocking for like 10 minutes.”

“Maybe,” Luke muttered. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Band practice.” Bobby said and walked past Luke into the garage.

“I thought we said 2pm?” Luke asked, looking at Alex.

“It is two, man,” Alex said and put his hand on Luke’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said and followed Bobby into the garage. Could it really be 2pm already? That meant they had slept for 11 hours. Normally Luke was lucky if he got 7 hours on that couch.

“Is that Reggie?” Bobby asked when the two others had caught up to him. 

Reggie had turned and was facing the wall, still fast asleep. “Yeah,” Luke said. “I should probably wake him.”

_________________________

“Hey, Reggie.”

Reggie felt himself drifting back to consciousness. He had had a multitude of dreams, and wasn’t quite sure what was real and what wasn’t. 

“Reggie?” Luke’s voice reminded him of the night before. So that wasn’t a dream, then. He was at the studio, he had spent the night with Luke. He had fallen asleep on top of Luke, if he remembered correctly. A kiss. Luke had kissed him. And he had just sat there like an idiot.

“It’s 2pm, Bobby and Alex are here for band practice.”

Reggie turned around and saw the blurry silhouette of three boys standing there. He rubbed his eyes. “Hey,” he said and sat up. “I hope your parents don’t mind that I crashed here last night, Bobby.”

“What’s one more teenage runaway?” Bobby joked, but nobody laughed. “I’m sorry. I’m sure they won’t mind if you stay for a couple of days.”

“Thanks.” Reggie liked Bobby’s parents, maybe even better than his own. 

“So, band practice?” Alex said when the silence was growing awkward. “Do we wanna start with Now or Never?”

Reggie knew the song well enough to play it in his sleep, which was good, because his thoughts were somewhere else. He thought back to the rollercoaster of emotions from the night before, the fight with his parents, the conversation with Luke, the kiss. It all kept coming back to the kiss. He hadn’t expected it, but even more, he hadn’t expected it to be so nice. He kicked himself for not kissing Luke back, but he hadn’t realized until just now how much he wanted to. 

The rest of the songs demanded more of his attention, and he was happy about the distraction, though he found himself glancing over at Luke more than he used to. Did Luke actually like him, or did he get caught up in the moment? 

His thoughts were interrupted by yet another knock on the door, barely audible over their loud music. Reggie looked around the room and his bandmates all mirrored his confused look. They were all there, so who was outside?

Bobby’s dad let himself in when the music faded. “Hey, Reggie, your mom’s on the phone.”

Reggie followed Bobby’s dad into the house and picked up the phone, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk to his mom right now. “Hey,” he said. 

“Reggie, you can’t just run off like that. You need to come home.”

He could tell from her voice that she was still mad. Going home to get yelled at was the last thing he wanted. He also really wanted to talk to Luke, alone. “No, I don’t.”

“Please just come home, I was worried about you. We didn’t know where you were.” This time her tone was more sincere.

“Give me that,” another voice said from farther away, and Reggie heard the sounds of the phone being passed. “Come home, kid, you’re embarrassing us.” That wasn’t the first time Reggie had heard those words coming from his dad, though not in the same context. 

“Be nice,” his mom said in the background.

“No, he needs to know he doesn’t have a choice.”

“He’s not gonna come if he thinks you’re gonna yell at him.”

“I am gonna yell at him.”

Reggie rolled his eyes. After another minute of his parents bickering, he simply hung up. This, day in and day out. And when they didn’t have didn’t have the energy to yell at eachother, they took it out on him instead, because he didn’t talk back. Until yesterday.

“Everything okay?” Bobby’s dad asked when Reggie passed him on his way back to the garage.

“Would you mind if I stayed one more night?”

“Stay as long as you want,” he said and smiled. “I’ll get you a mattress and some blankets.”

Reggie wished for the millionth time that his dad could be a little more like that. “Thank you.”  
_____

When Reggie returned to the garage, Luke was the only one there. He was sitting on the couch writing in his notebook with his acoustic guitar on his lap.

“How long was I gone?” Reggie said looking around the room. 

Luke smiled. “We decided to call it a day. Alex went home and Bobby apparently had a date.” He put his guitar away and closed his book. “Did she want you home?”

He sighed. “Yeah, but I’m not going.” 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Luke asked, just like he had the day before.

He grabbed his bass from the chair he left it in and sat down next to Luke. He wasn’t planning on playing it, he just needed something to hold. “She called me stupid,” he said, tightening his grip on his bass. “Last night I told her we were getting close to booking The Orpheum, and she said I was stupid if I thought they would let a group of 17-year olds play.”

“I thought your mom supported the band?” Luke asked. 

“So did I.” He could feel a single tear roll down his face. “I would have expected it from my dad, but not her. I guess she was in a bad mood.” Reggie looked over at Luke. “I told her she was stupid for staying with my dad even though she hates him and they both lost it.” 

“I’m sorry,” Luke said, his tone sympathetic. 

“They can mock me for my grades and how I dress, but I won’t let them belittle Sunset Curve,” Reggie said firmly, while fighting back tears. 

“They’re your parents, they shouldn’t make fun of you at all.” Luke stretched his arm out as if to put it on Reggie’s shoulder, but awkwardly changed his mind and put it on the back of the couch instead.

“Tell them that.” Reggie appreciated the fact that they could have this conversation even though things were a little weird from the night before. With Luke nothing else mattered when his friends really needed him. 

“Say the word and I’ll go over there right now,” Luke said, dead serious.

Reggie laughed. “I appreciate the offer.” It felt good to talk to somebody, to let it all out. Though he felt a little guilty for laying it all on Luke, who had his own share of family drama. 

Bobby’s dad knocked on the door and entered with a mattress and blankets, just like he said he would. He just left them by the door, not wanting to disturb. “Sleep well,” he said, though it wasn’t quite bedtime yet. 

“I hope it’s okay that I stay one more night?” Reggie asked Luke when the door closed again.  
“Of course,” Luke said, smiling. 

“We should probably talk about last night,” Reggie said after a minute of silence. He didn’t really want to have this conversation, but he also needed Luke to know that he wasn’t sorry about the kiss, he had wanted to tell him that all day. 

Luke’s smile dropped. “I thought we agreed it never happened?”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“I said I was sorry.”

The truly apologetic look on Luke’s face broke Reggie. He had wanted to talk it through, to figure his feelings out, to make sure they were on the same page, but he couldn’t help himself. He leaned in and kissed Luke, starting out softly, but when he could tell Luke was into it he deepened the kiss. It was the kind of kiss you could get lost in. 

_______

Luke had been worried all day about whether he had ruined his friendship with Reggie or not. Rationally he knew their friendship could handle a lot, and an unwanted kiss was far from the worst thing in the world, but there was still that little voice in his head saying he fucked up. The fact that Reggie confided in him about his family issues silenced it a little, but when Reggie said he wanted to talk about the night before, the voice was screaming. 

Then Reggie kissed him and everything went silent. The whole world disappeared. When they finally parted it felt like hours had passed. His head was spinning. 

“I’m not,” Reggie said. “I’m not sorry.”

Luke wasn’t sure what this meant to Reggie, he wasn’t even sure what it meant to him. He had never entertained the thought of a relationship with Reggie. Kissing didn’t have to turn into a relationship, though, kissing could just be kissing. Maybe Reggie just needed a distraction. Luke didn’t mind being a distraction. 

They kissed again. And again.

__________

“So are you guys like a thing now?”

It took Reggie a couple of seconds to realize he wasn’t dreaming. Whose voice was that? Bobby’s. Right, he was in Bobby’s garage. With Luke. Luke, whose arm was around him. They must have fallen asleep while cuddling. “Good morning.”

Luke shifted behind him, withdrawing his arm. He lifted his head and looked around the room while yawning. He must have seen Bobby because his face stiffened. “Dude, have you heard of knocking?”

“I did knock.”

Reggie hadn’t heard any knocking, but he also hadn’t heard the door open and close so he supposed he must have been sleeping deeply. 

“Well you’re supposed to wait until somebody opens,” Luke said.

“Normally I would, but not today.” Bobby smiled. “Guess who called.”

“Please tell me it wasn’t my mom again. Or worse, my dad.” Reggie said. 

“No, man. The Orpheum called!” Bobby’s smile grew even bigger. “They want us to play next weekend!”

“Are you serious?” Luke asked. His face was doing a half smile, half suspicious thing that Reggie couldn’t help but find hot. 

“Yeah. They apologized for the short notice, but I told them we would do it.”

“Of course we will,” Luke said. He was smiling from ear to ear. “It’s gonna be legendary.” If he hadn’t just woken up, Reggie was sure Luke would be running laps around the studio by now. 

Reggie was excited too, he just had a lot of things on his mind. “Are you sure we’re ready for that?” 

“Of course we are,” Luke said, then whispered: “Aren’t you excited to prove your parents wrong?” 

“I guess.” A part of him desperately wanted to prove his parents wrong, but he mostly just wanted their support no matter how well the band did. “Have you told Alex yet?”

“Yeah, he’s on his way over.” Bobby looked from Reggie to Luke, then back to Reggie. “So are you not gonna tell me what’s going on between you two?”

“Uhhh.” Reggie looked at Luke. Luke always knew what to say. 

“We haven’t really discussed terms yet,” Luke said. 

“But there is something?” Bobby asked. 

“Yeah,” Reggie said. He hadn’t really questioned his sexuality, he liked girls, so he went after girls. He never even considered the possibility that he might like boys too. Now he did like a boy and he didn’t care who knew. 

“Does that make me the only straight member of this band?”

“I mean, we _are_ called Sunset _Curve_ ,” Luke said. 

Bobby rolled his eyes. 

Reggie smiled. 

There was a knock on the door and the three boys turned at the same time. 

“Must be Alex,” Bobby said and walked over to open it. 

“Hey,” a familiar voice said, though it wasn’t Alex. 

Bobby got out of the way so Reggie could see his mother standing in the doorway. 

“Reggie, can we talk?” she asked. 

“Give me a minute, guys,” Reggie said and followed his mother outside. “What are you doing here?”

“I want you to come home,” she said. 

“So you can yell at me some more?”

“No. I’ve been thinking a lot while you’ve been gone, and you’re right…”

“Go on.”

“I should leave you father. We haven’t been happy in a very long time.” She gave him a regretful look. “I know I should have left him a long time ago, but I’m doing it now, I’ve already started packing.”

“Good for you, Mom.”

“I thought maybe we could look at apartments together?”

“Sure,” Reggie said. He didn’t want to get his hopes too high. She was the lesser of two evils, he couldn’t be sure that things would get better the minute his parents separated. 

“Great,” she said. 

“Were you ever? Happy, I mean.”

“Of course. We were madly in love, then we fell out of it so gradually I didn’t even notice.”

Reggie wasn’t sure he had ever heard his mother this sincere. It was a lot to take in. “How is that even possible?” 

“I hope when you have a wife and kid, that you don’t have to experience it, but it’s more common than you think,” she said.

The thought of a wife seemed so strange to him. Partly because that meant that he would officially be old, but also because he was just getting used to the idea of being with Luke. Should he tell her about Luke? He decided now was the time to challenge her love. “Actually, I’m kind of seeing Luke right now.”

His mother couldn’t quite hide the shock on her face, but she tried. “I hope one day you get to marry whoever you want,” she said simply. 

Reggie smiled, he was kind of proud of his mom. “I’ll be home tonight, okay? We can talk more then. Alex is coming over for band practice.”

“Okay,” she said and turned towards her car.

“We booked The Orpheum by the way, next weekend.”

“I’m really proud of you,” she said and got in the car. 

Reggie wasn’t sure he had ever heard those words.  
__________

“What did your mom want?” Luke asked when Reggie returned. 

“She actually said she was gonna leave my dad.”

“I’m sorry,” Bobby said. 

“No, that’s a good thing,” Reggie said. He hadn’t really told the band how bad his homelife was, not before he told Luke the other day, so he didn’t blame Bobby for his assumption. 

“That’s great,” Luke said. 

“If she goes through with it.” Reggie took a seat on the couch. “She isn’t the most reliable person in the world.”

“I really hope things get better,” Luke said. 

“Thanks.” Reggie wouldn’t mind talking about it some more, but he would rather do it when it was just him and Luke.

Luckily that was when Alex decided to declare his arrival. “We booked The Orpheum,” he said in the voice of an announcer. 

“Yup,” Luke said and grabbed his guitar. “So we have a lot of practicing to do.”

_____________________________

By the time they finished it was already 8pm.

“I promised Mom I’d be home tonight,” Reggie said when he and Luke finished tidying up. 

“Well you better get going, then,” Luke said. 

“I feel kind of bad for leaving you, though,” Reggie said. 

“If there is a chance for you to make up with your mom, I definitely think you should go for it.” Luke smiled. “You can always come back if things don’t go the way you want them to.”

“Are you gonna take your own advice?” Reggie asked, hoping he didn’t overstep. 

“We’ll see. First I need to focus on The Orpheum next weekend, though. Maybe if we do well we can book more gigs and start making money, and then we can buy our own apartment.”

Reggie liked the thought of that. “I told my mom about you, by the way.”

“I’ve met your mother many times, Reg.”

“I told her about us. I hope that’s okay.” They still hadn’t talked about what “us” was, but they knew there was an “us.”

Luke kissed him softly. “Of course,” he whispered.

“This is the best weekend I’ve had in… as long as I can remember,” Reggie said. 

“Me too.” Luke smiled. “Let’s see if we can top it next weekend.”

_________________________________________________

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Alex asked when Luke and Bobby finally arrived at the Orpheum. 

“On his way,” Luke said. He still wasn’t used to people referring to Reggie as his boyfriend. He liked the sound of it though. 

“He better get here fast, our soundcheck is in 15 minutes,” Bobby said.

“He’ll be here.” The band had practiced and worked on the setlist every day after school, and Reggie had stayed behind for another couple of hours every day to talk. It had only been a week, but things with his parents were already getting better. Reggie and his mom were staying with his grandma while they looked for an apartment and she had actually filed for a divorce. 

“I’m here, what did I miss?” Reggie said as he practically ran through the door, before stopping to catch his breath. 

“Nothing,” Luke said and gave him a kiss. “Now let’s rock this.”


End file.
